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Days of the Week / Dias da semana

In everyday language, you can say just the first part of the weekdays e.g. terça, quinta.

Weekend in Portuguese is called Final de semana (literary end of the week)

Origin: the weekdays in Portuguese end in “feira” (fair), that comes from the tradition in the past of the public fairs everyday during the week. Besides that, the first part of each day is given by an ordinal number (segunda-second; terça-third…)

Months / Meses

January

janeiro

February

fevereiro

March

março

April

abril

May

maio

June

junho

July

julho

August

agosto

September

setembro

October

outubro

November

novembro

December

dezembro

Seasons / Estações

spring

a primavera

summer

o verão

fall (autumn)

o outono

winter

o inverno

Usually the seasons in Portuguese are preceded by the definite article o/a.

Days of the week, months and seasons are written with small letters in Portuguese

Um and dois (or the numbers ended on it e.g. vinte e um) agree with the gender of what is following it. You use um and dois always when you are counting (um, dois, três….) or when it goes before a masculine noun (e.g. um carro – one car). You use uma and duas before a feminine noun (e.g. uma casa – one house).

You can use the word meia (short form of half dozen) or meia-dúzia (half-dozen) in the place of six in spoken language e.g. Eu vivo na casa dois meia meia – I live in the house 266.

In the compound numbers from 21 to 99, the word e (and) goes between the ten and the unit.

When you have the number cem with any quantity smaller than it, you have to add an o and chage its end e.g. cento e cinquenta (150), cento e vinte e cinco mil (125.000).

Numbers in Portuguese (200-999.999)

duzentos (-as)

two hundred

trezentos (-as)

three hundred

quatrocentos (-as)

four hundred

quinhentos (-as)

five hundred

seiscentos (-as)

six hundred

setecentos (-as)

seven hundred

oitocentos (-as)

eight hundred

novecentos (-as)

nine hundred

mil

a/one thousand

dois (duas) mil

two thousand

The hundreds from 200- to 900 agree in gender with the following noun, e.g. trezentos carros (300 cars), duzentas e cinquenta e cinco pessoas (255 people). The masculine is used in counting and mathematics .

Between the hundreds and smaller number, you have the e, like in English, e.g. setecentos e trinta e três – seven hundred and thirty-three.

Mil is invariable, but two thousand agree in gender when followed by a feminine noun, e.g. duas mil moedas – 2000 coins.

Mil is followed by e (and) before a smaller number and can be followed (depending on the speaker) with rounded multiple of hundred, e.g. mil e duzentos – 1200, cinco mil e quarenta e cinco – 5045.

Notice that in Portuguese is more common to use point (.) instead of comma (,) dividing thousands, hundreds and millions.

Numbers in Portuguese (1.000.000 upwards)

um milhão

a/one million

dois milhões

two million

três milhões

three million

um bilhão

a/one billion

dois bilhões

two billion

um trilhões

a trillion

Milhão and bilhão are preceded by um and have their plural forms ending in –ões, e.g. dois bilhões – two billion.

Milhão and milhões may be followed by the conjunction e before a round number of thousand or smaller number, but never before thousands and smaller units, e.g. quatro milhões e quinhentos mil – 4.500.000, quatro milhões, quinhentos mil e trinta e cinco – 4.500.035.

The category of personal pronouns in Portuguese can work as subject pronouns and object pronouns. An object pronoun can work either as the direct object or as the indirect object. In this post we will see its use more as subject pronoun in the spoken language.

Personal Pronouns

I

eu

you

você, tu

he, it

ele

she, it

ela

we

nós

you

vocês

they

eles (male)

they

elas (female)

E.g. Eu amo você.

I love you.

Nós mudamos para São Paulo ontem.

We moved to São Paulo yesterday.

In everyday language, it is common to use the noun phrase a gente (“the people”) in the place of nós.

“We don`t want just food, we want beverage, leisure, ballet*” – part of the music “Comida” written by the rock band Titãs. * – free translation

The general word for you is você for singular and vocês for plural. Você and vocês are followed by verbs in third person, singular and plural respectively. Você(s) can occupy the object position.

Você é americano?

Are you American?

Vocês fizeram um bom trabalho.

You did a good job.

Gostaria de ver você amanhã na festa.

I`d like to see you tomorrow in the party.

When you are talking to an older stranger or a superior, you should use the respectful o senhor (the gentleman) or a senhora (the lady). These are also the forms used by employees in services to address costumers. They must be followed by a third person verb.

Bom dia senhor, como posso ajudá-lo?

Good morning sir, how can I help you?

Posso falar com a senhora?

Can I talk with you? (a superior, an older persons or someone to whom you show respect)

O senhor pode aguardar na fila, por favor?

Could you stay in the line please?

O senhor and a senhora are appropriate to use in cases where in English you use “sir” and “ma`am”. These titles are also used in plural os senhores and as senhoras in formal circumstances.

Note: in the same way that in English, the use of could and would makes the sentence more polite, in Portuguese, you can use the “poderia” in the place of “pode”. So in all sentences above, you can use “poderia” this is more polite but less common in everyday language. For Example: Você poderia me ajudar? Another factor that would increase politness (and it is welcome) is to add “please” in the end of a request (in Portuguese: “por favor”). In the same examle: Você poderia me ajudar, por favor?

When the rules set out in (a) and (b) are not applicable, an acute or circumflex accent appears over the stressed vowel

ótica, ânimo, inglêsoptic or optics, animation or liveliness, English

Note: the accent on the movie is from Brazil Southeast region (the same of São Paulo and Rio), particularly from Minas Gerais State. This is just a note, there aren`t great differences between the accents in Brazil which can reduce the understanding.